The Secret Language of Comics: Visual Thinking and Writing

Author: Ore

Reflection of Tracing Stitches & Spinning

Student Posts

Prompt

Selecting and tracing my pages was actually much more challenging than I originally thought it would be. I found myself looking through both books multiple times trying to find pages which would suit the purpose of this assignment and were also genuinely interesting to me. During this process, I bookmarked a few pages on both books which were possible options and then went back to each one looking at ways that the pages could be compared. I was pretty satisfied with the page I selected for Stitches however the page of Spinning that I was gravitating towards seemed pretty bland at first glance leading me to almost disregard it. I didn’t disregard it though mainly because there were several comparisons between that page and my already-selected Stitches page that were building up in my head. While I was tracing my pages, I didn’t annotate at all because it felt easier for me to do one part at a time. Instead, ideas and comparisons between the two pages would pop into my mind while I traced both pages and I would write them down on a sticky note to include in my annotations later.

I initially had trouble beginning my essay just because I had no idea of where to start. After pondering for a while without getting anywhere, I simply just started writing and the essay began to form from there. In previous writing classes, there was usually a more clear cut structure that’s meant to somewhat guide you through your essay. With this format however, I had no idea of what my thesis was until I actually got to the point where I needed to write it down. At this point where I have already written two full paragraphs, it seemed like it would be extremely difficult to write a thesis that somehow related everything together yet it came much easier than I expected. Most likely, this is because after analyzing and comparing both pages, I somewhat already had a thesis in my head that I just needed to organize and straighten out.

Doing the tracing, annotations, and analysis, in a way put me in the place of the author in how each aspect of the page was deliberate and has meaning behind it. When I originally read Stitches and Spinning, I knew that to an extent, the authors of these books were using it as an outlet to express their feelings during this time and share their personal stories. After completing this assignment however, it became much clearer how these books strongly show their feelings not only in the past as a child, but even in the present as the adults that are creating these books hence the title of my essay, “The Past and The Present”.

Pen-sile

Student Posts

I decided to combine a pen and a missile together to create a “pen-sile”. The process of selecting two images that worked together and satisfied me was quite difficult. Initially, I tried to mentally visualize two random images that came to mind and somehow place them together, but soon I realized that I was not getting anywhere without looking at actual images. I also looked at some examples in order to have a clearer view of what type of images and combinations I should be trying to create. After searching through several different images and going through multiple trials, I finally settled at an image of a pen and missile cropped together. I decided to use the top of the pen and the bottom of the missile as those are the more defining parts of each item and I wanted to make it clear what each item actually was.

Prompt

Image Sources:

Pen

Missile

Sketch 3: Visual Note Taking

Student Posts


My visual notes represent information from my MATH 111 class on the basics of mathematical functions. Making these visual notes were pretty interesting as I normally don’t pay too much attention to my organization while taking regular notes yet I found myself challenged to organize each section, image, or idea to a location on the paper where it made sense and wasn’t too difficult to understand. I also found making these notes to be very laid-back and even somewhat enjoyable as I wasn’t restricted in any manner. I tend to think about things in portions/sections, and this shows in my visual notes as different things are sectioned away or together. In my opinion, I think that these visual notes are a great way to review information that you already somewhat know as images tend to stick better than text yet sometimes it is hard to convey all the necessary information in images.

Link back to prompt here.

Sunday Sketch #1

Student Posts

As I pondered what to do for this assignment, I was scanning my room when I came across this wooden spoon which I had been given when I was initially moving into my dorm room. I picked it up and thought that there had to be something I could use it to create and started to constantly turn it around looking at it from different perspectives. I turned it completely upside down and that’s when it hit me that it looked similar to a boat paddle. Originally, I was going to do a simple sketch with someone holding the paddle as he/she rowed through a body of water however once I began drawing, I kept on adding more detail and shading to the point where I had only drawn the boat after a good amount of time. Due to this, I decided to abandon the idea of a person holding the paddle but rather to have the paddle become attached to the boat alongside one other drawn one. I’m quite satisfied with the finished product.

Literacy Narrative, Part One Reflection Post

Student Posts

https://oreadenikinju.wordpress.com/literacy-narrative-part-one/

My narrative goes through the different stages of my life and how my experiences have really impacted my view and interest in reading and writing. From America, to Nigeria, then back to America, there were a myriad of different aspects and circumstances which influenced and ultimately determined how I read and write.

Being that this assignment was freewriting, I did not feel really pressed to write a certain way or fit a specific mold. After looking at a few posts to see how others were writing, I simply opened a new document and began to write as it came to me. Writing this narrative painted a clearer picture in my mind of where a lot of my reading and writing habits came from. There were not any surprising moments for me but rather, it felt like I could properly explain the different sources of my style of reading and writing.

“Even as a child, I was able to understand the power of how words can be intertwined with images to create something greater than both of them individually”. I believe this is the most interesting sentence from my narrative mainly because it relates a lot back to this class specifically. Prior to this class, I had honestly forgotten what a significant role that comics played in my life as a child. This narrative helped me delve deeper into my memory and remember my previous interest for comics.

Ore’s Avatar

Student Posts

My avatar is a combination of a snippet taken from one of the pages of a comic book series called Archie (published by Archie Comics) and a self-made background containing my first name, Ore.The Archie comic book series were by far, my favorite books to read during my childhood and were the first thing to come to mind when I was pondering what to use as my central focus for the avatar.

The snippet which showcases three of the main characters of the series—Veronica(left), Archie(middle), and Betty(right), originally contained a different background which displayed several other characters in a classroom setting. Because of this, one difficulty I faced when creating this avatar was cropping out only those characters from the rest of the scene. Initially after realizing this difficulty, I opted to search for a different central focus instead; however, none of the other options that I came up with satisfied me leading to me circling back to my original idea.

The Archie book series were simply the perfect option as they relate to both the class as well as myself. The Archie series are a collection of comic books which is the same genre as many of the texts we will be reading in this class. Alongside that, the Archie series is also a big part of my own childhood. In Nigeria, where I lived for a good part of my childhood, these comics were extremely popular among the children from my school so I was naturally attracted to them as well. Additionally, I was also heavily invested in art back then so the idea of using art to tell an interesting story also intrigued me. I believe my avatar represents not only the theme of this class, but also several of my childhood experiences such as living in Nigeria, and my school as well as the development of my interest in art.

Images:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/bagogames/15612694675

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